Choosing between Cavan or Carlow (Tullow)

Zeppi

Hi, shortly I'll be moving to Ireland but still undecided where to stay if in Cavan or in Carlow (Tullow). Can anyone tell me which town to choose, good for shopping, any good pubs, any good restaurants? Basically is it a good town to live in?

rgds
Zeppi

kanurocks

well you should be prepared for the fact that there both in thew back arse of nowhere. Cavan also is a bit hard to commute to dublin from, and hour and halfs about the fasteset youll ever do it on a good traffic day. On bad days and fridays you'd probably get to cork quicker.

cournioni

Not true. My house is only 50 minutes from Dublin. That is if you use the M1. The M3 will be there in ten years or so, so Cavan town will grow as will the price of houses in the area. Cavan town is a great town and it will only get better.

zAbbo

Cavan is a town with a lot of amenities, with a regional hospital as well. As well as recent developments such as their swimming pool etc.

It wouldn't take that long to get onto the M1 either.

lucernarian

PORNAPSTER wrote:

Not true. My house is only 50 minutes from Dublin. That is if you use the M1. The M3 will be there in ten years or so, so Cavan town will grow as will the price of houses in the area. Cavan town is a great town and it will only get better.

50 minutes from Shercock? It's 40 minutes on a good day to get to Drogheda using that motorway.

I presume you're on the southern/Carrick side of Shercock.

It's about 35 miles to get to the M1 at its nearest point at the N33 junction and you have to go through Bailieborough and Kingscourt (a bad road in places and twisty for much of it). Would it be worthwile to use the poor regional roads there to avoid Kells and Navan?

Zeppi

cheers guy's but still undecided

rgds
Don

cournioni

To_be_confirmed wrote:

50 minutes from Shercock? It's 40 minutes on a good day to get to Drogheda using that motorway.

I presume you're on the southern/Carrick side of Shercock.

It's about 35 miles to get to the M1 at its nearest point at the N33 junction and you have to go through Bailieborough and Kingscourt (a bad road in places and twisty for much of it). Would it be worthwile to use the poor regional roads there to avoid Kells and Navan?

I timed my Dad one morning (all be it at 4.45am, to catch a flight at 6.40am) when he was heading for the airport and it took him 50 mins to get to the airport and get parked. That is what I am basing it on. He was going a decent speed but not far off the speed limit. I know this because I was watching the clock like a hawk because of how late we were!

It takes 25 minutes on a good day to get from Cavan town to where I live, that is going through Cootehill, which is a far better road than the Bailieborough and Kingscourt roads. So on a good day one hour and fifteen minutes would get you fairly well into the north side of the city.

I would take that route personally, because I find the N3 to be a joke at the moment. A quite dangerous joke at times with people pulling off some ridiculous overtaking only to get stuck in a huge traffic jam once you hit the Clonee by pass. The M1 is a far safer and easier route to take when commuting to Dublin.

delly

What is basing your decesion on these locations? i.e. is it based on distance to Dublin, house prices etc. With a little more info we could maybe make a few extra suggestions.

As a blow in to Drogheda, I would defo recommend this thriving town.

lucernarian

PORNAPSTER wrote:

I timed my Dad one morning (all be it at 4.45am, to catch a flight at 6.40am) when he was heading for the airport and it took him 50 mins to get to the airport and get parked. That is what I am basing it on. He was going a decent speed but not far off the speed limit. I know this because I was watching the clock like a hawk because of how late we were!

It takes 25 minutes on a good day to get from Cavan town to where I live, that is going through Cootehill, which is a far better road than the Bailieborough and Kingscourt roads. So on a good day one hour and fifteen minutes would get you fairly well into the north side of the city.

I would take that route personally, because I find the N3 to be a joke at the moment. A quite dangerous joke at times with people pulling off some ridiculous overtaking only to get stuck in a huge traffic jam once you hit the Clonee by pass. The M1 is a far safer and easier route to take when commuting to Dublin.

Interesting that... The Cootehill-Cavan stretch of road would be pretty good anyway. The 40 minutes comes from travelling from the north of Drogheda to get to Cootehill, which takes roughly 50. I go up fairly regularly but the mother isn't a fast driver. The N2 is also a possibility now for travelling to Dublin thanks to the Ashbourne bypass.

Cavan is in itself a very nice town though. Wasn't there some survey/poll this year which found Cavan the best town in Ireland to live in? The road infrastructure for the town itself is excellent and it has a good few new shops.

Rogueish

Hi Zeppi,

As a native of the Northeast (not quite Cavan) I'm now living here in Carlow Town for the last 8years. Tullow is a nice village/town. It is close enough to Carlow town and commuter routes to dublin to allow you varied social life if that is what you are after. Tullow (to my knowledge) does not have a nightclub - you would have to travel to Carlow for that but like any Irish town it has more than adequate number of pubs to quench your thirst.

Carlow has a pretty good selection of shops (it has come a LONG way in the last eight years). There are all the major supermarkets in Carlow town - Tescos, SuperValue, Superquinn and Dunnes Stores, along with most of the market leading chainstores - Next, River Island, Sasha, Vero Moda, Jack and Jones, Neu Look. Department stores (on a smaller level) such as Shaw's, Haddens and Heustons offer a range from the likes of Principles, Wallices (sp), Dorothy Perkins, Top Shop, Adams, Evans, Regatta, Warehouse etc.

Again Restaurant wise I have never heard of anywhere that has been described as a 'must try' eaterie in Tullow. I have heard that the Mount Wolsley hotel in Tullow is supposed to be really nice. Here in Carlow there are two Italian resturants, a thai, at least two indians, some of my faourites are La Strada and LauTrecs, a Mac Donalds, KFC etc....

I'm sorry that my working knowledge of Tullow is not as expansive as it chould be.

But thaen again..... you have only posted in the northeast forum asking for opinions on Cavan......maybe your mind is already made up.

However..... welcome back to Ireland and I hope that all proves Happy, Healthy and Profitable for you.

Zeppi

I've decided to head to the south east to Tullow after spending the last few days there and it was more ideal to raise a family and after that I was offered a job there.
The people are very helpful and I must say that in 25 mins you are Carlow where you can find a bit of everything.
The only two problems that I'm trying to sort are finding a 3 bedroom house to let (preferably not more than 750 euros) and buy a small and not expensive car to start with because without a car your are really stucked.

Any suggestions or any telephone numbers are welcome (please send me a pm )

Thanks and rgds
Zeppi

lucernarian

If you are going to live there when your kids are teenagers, it will be a pain in the ass. Giving the kids lifts to a town 25 mins away would be a niusance I'd say. Is Tullow nearby and is it more than a 1-street town?